US3685319A

US3685319A - Sheer warp knit garment and method for making same

Info

Publication number: US3685319A
Application number: US93126A
Authority: US
Inventors: George E Jackson
Original assignee: George E Jackson
Current assignee: Viskase Corp
Priority date: 1970-11-27
Filing date: 1970-11-27
Publication date: 1972-08-22
Anticipated expiration: 1989-08-22

Abstract

Continuous, back-to-back tubular undergarments, having sheer, lock-stitched body portions and spaced, reinforced toe, heel, welt, or panty portions, are produced on a double-needle-bar Raschel knitting machine having at least 12 guide bars. The basic body knit is chain-stitched wales of one strand, the wales being connected by zig-zag stitches of another strand. The chain stitches are converted to a jersey 2-0, 2-4 stitch in the reinforced area so that no guide bar must move more than one needle space to form the garment.

Description

United States Patent [151 3,685,319

Jackson [451 Aug. 22, 1972 r [54] SHEER WARP KNIT GARMENT AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS METHOD FOR MAKING SAME Publication, The Hosiery Trade Journal" Raschel [72] lnventor: George E. Jackson, 702 Colony Dr., ml Tig 1967. PP-

Charleston, W. Va. 25314 117 [22] Filed: 1970 Primary Examiner-Ronald Feldbaum [21] Appl. No; 93,126 AttorneyPearson & Pearson [57] ABSTRACT [52] U.s. Cl ..66/87 R, 66/l7676;2{9656,/61;/6u}312 Continuous, backwback tubular undergarments,

having sheer, lock-stitched body portions and spaced, l 51 Int. (J. ..D04b 23/02 reinforced toe, heel welt or panty portions are Fied of Search 95, produced on a double needle bar 6 5, 132 machine having at least 12 guide bars. The basic body knit is chain-stitched wales of one strand, the wales [56] References Cit d being connected by zig-zag stitches of another strand. The chain stitches are converted to a jersey 2-0, 2-4 UNITED STATES PATENTS stitch in the reinforced area so that no guide bar must 3,429,147 2/1969 Perrier ..66/l95 move more needle Space 3,564,876 2/1971 Titone ..66/177 ment' 3,566,619 3/1971 Jinone ..66/l77 5 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures F EE PATENTEDAHB IBTZ 3.685.319 SHEET 1 0F 2 25 -2 41 23 24 22 l T I; 40 q 4 T u u J GUIDE SET OUT FOR PANTY HOSE GUIDE BARS LEG LEG 12 CHA|N\37 o o o o o o o o o o o c o o o o I] JERSEY/ o o o o o o o o o o e o 0 10 RT. SEL. X 9 ZIG-ZAG/36 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o .o o o o o o o o o o o 8 LFT. SEL. X 33 24 7 INSIDESEL. I X 6 INSIDESEL. X

5 RT. SEL. 32 23 4 2|G-ZAG36 o o o o o \\o o J o o o o o c o o o o o o o o o o o o 3 LFT SEL. X 30 2 JERSEY o o o o o o o o o o o o o a o o I CHA|N 0 o o c o o a o o o o 0 LEFT 31 RIGHT 47 PANTY 46 SELVEDGE CENTER SELVEDGE X=CONNECTOR STRANDS I 48-49 INVENTOR.

Fl Z GEORGE E. JACKSON ATTORNE Y5 PATENTEU 3,585,319

SHEET 2 [1F 2 REINFORCING BASIC TUBE AREA STITCH STITCH INVENTOR. GEORGE E. JACKSON ATTORNE Y5 SHEER WARP KNIT GARMENT AND METHOD FOR MAKING SAME BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the knitting art, it has long been customary to make flat goods on warp knitting machines and to make tubular, semi-finished garments on circular weft knitting machines. Warp knitting, with its multiplicity of warp yarns, one to a needle, has proved most satisfactory in making flat, power net fabric for cutting into undergarment patterns. While multi-guide bar, two needle bar Raschel machines can make continuous tubular goods, the adaption of such machines to producing sheer stockings, panty hose, or the like, has been generally unsuccessful to date.

A two-needle-bar, eight, or guide bar, warp knitting machine, is disclosed in British Pat. Nos. 1,036,246, of Jan. 8, 1963, and 1,069,881 of May 24, 1967, the machine being capable of producing tubular, ladder-proof, ladies sheer stockings with invisible lateral seaming joining the two single fabrics made by the machine. Reference is made to an article entitled Hosiery and Panty Hose Developments on Raschel Equipment in the Nov. 25, 1968, issue of Knitted Outerwear Times, describing the state of the art and the equipment and product of the above patents.

It is stated in the said article that present developments enable the production of string connected, or back-to-back, continuous, warp-knit tubes on a ten guide bar Raschel machine, the leg, or panel, section being in reverse lock knit, the tube being stitch-shaped, the tube having reinforced sections for heel, foot bottom, and toe, and having another reinforced section to which a separately knitted welt is later attached. The reverse lock knit of the panel, or leg, area requires guide bar movement over two needle spaces, to produce a run-proof stocking.

In actual practice, despite the allegations in the said article, it is believed that prior to the invention herein, stockings made in accordance with the article have been made on an eight guide bar, double-needle-bar machine, and the selvedge has been connectable only by breaking off two needles at each selvedge. It will be understood that Raschel needles are formed in a block, and, if one or more needles are broken from the block, the needle bed can only be used for one product thereafter until the broken blocks are replaced. It is also pointed out that, when shifts of more than one needle space are made, three separately controlled yarn guides are required to make each selvedge. While stockings with only two selvedges could be made with a 10 bar machine, using four bars for the knit and six for the selvedge, panty hose with its four selvedges would require 16 guide bars, and no such machine is presently available.

To make panty hose on a 14 guide bar machine, it would be necessary to break off needles at the outer selvedges, and this is undesirable. The said article thus does not teach the making of sheer, panty hose on the 14 guide bar Fashionmaster machine mentioned, but simply recounts the many problems encountered including variation in individual end tension, the extensive guide bar swing, tearing of the crotch, etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In this invention, the 14 guide bar, double-needle-bar Fashionmaster of the Cocker Machine & Foundry Company of Gastonia, NO, or any other similar machine having at least 12 guide bars, can produce sheer, lock stitch, stockings, or panty hose, with the problems enumerated in the said article completely overcome. This is accomplished by avoiding the reverse locknit, and two-needle-space movement taught by the above prior art. Instead, two fine denier strands are fed to each needle, the set of one such strands are looped back and forth between adjacent wales to tie in the adjacent pillars laterally, the set of the other such strands are chain stitched in the panel, or leg, areas, and then converted to a jersey 2-0, 2-4 loop structure in the reinforced toe, foot bottom, heel and welt areas, and no guide bar moves two needle spaces in the knitted structure. In this manner, only six guide bars are needed to form the panel areas and reinforced areas, and only six more guide bars are required to make both the inside and outside selvedges and the crotch of the panty hose.

The stitch shaping and crotch, leg formation of the sheer panty hose of this inventionis accomplished by the mechanism of the "Fashionmaster which is commercially available and is now used to make fish'net panty hose, using 12 of the 14 guide bars. The gist of my invention is the concept of a different stitch structure in the main body of the panty hose, and in the reinforced areas, whereby stitch motions of only one needle space are required, and the machine can therefore produce sheer, stitch-shaped panty hose, rather than merely fish-net, unreinforced panty hose.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic front view of a Fashionmaster machine showing the pattern means, warp beam means, warp knitting means, and wind up means;

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a double-needlebar, multiple guide bar Raschel knitting machine, showing the guide bar set out for the sheer panty hose of the invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged schematic view of string connected back-to-back sheer ladies stockings made in accordance with the invention and laid out flat before being cut and boarded into final stocking shape;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3, showing string connected, stitch-shaped sheer panty hose made in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the basic panel, or body, stitch; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the reinforced area stitch used in the toe, foot bottom, heel welt or panty areas.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a typical, multiple guide bar, two-needle-bar, Raschel, warp knitting machine 20, such as the above mentioned Fashionmaster or any equivalent commercially available machine having at least 10 guide bars. The machine 20 includes the warp beam means 21, guide bar means 22,

double needle bars

23 and 24, chain type pattern means 25 and 26, and wind up roll means 27, whereby the machine can have a pattern set up to make warp knitted products of various types.

The warp beam means 21 is arranged to supply two

strands

30 and 31, each, for example, of 15 denier Cantrece nylon, to each

needle

32 and 33 of the opposite pairs of needles on

needle bars

23 and 24 in each transverse zone 34 of the machine 20 required to knit a panty width tubular undergarment 35. This is'for the reason that rather than forming a single strand into both a wale-wise pillar and zig-zag, lateral connector between pillars, in this invention, one set 36 of strands forms the zig-zag lateral connector between wale-wise extending pillars, while the other set 37 of strands is forming either chain stitches or reinforcement jersey type stitches. I v

The 12 guide bars 1-12 of the machine are threaded as shown in FIG. 2 for making the sheer panty hose of the invention.

Guide bars

1, 2, 11 and 12' are threaded with the strands 30, to constitute the other set 37 of strands arranged to alternately form chain stitches in the panel, or basic tube stitch, areas 40 of the garments or to form jersey knit 2-0, 2-4 stitches in the toe area 41, foot bottom area 42, heel area 43, welt area 44, or panty area 45 of the garments. As shown, guide bars and connect the right outer selvedge 46,

guide bars

3 and 8 connect the left outer selvedge 47, and

guide bars

6 and 7 connect the inside

selvedges

48 and 49 of the leg, or other limb, tubes. The connector strands are marked X in the drawing, and form the crotch area 49 in a known manner.

In FIG. 5, the basic tube stitch of the invention is shown enlarged, each strand 30 associated with each

needle

23 or 24, forming a walewise-extending pillar of run-proof, lock, chain stitches, such as 51, 52 and 53,

and with each strand 31, associated with each

needle

23 or 24, forming a zig-zag stitch extending laterally back and forth as at54 and 55 between each

wale

51, 52 or 53, to tie in the chain stitched pillars. This basic tube stitch presents a sheer stocking panel, lock stitch appearance bearing little resemblance to the fish-net stitch of prior art panty hose, or to the two needle space stitch taught in the above mentioned British patents.

In FIG. 6, the reinforced area stitch of the invention is shown enlarged, this, like the basic stitch requiring no more than one needle space motion by the guide bars and therefore being possible on a machine of the Fashionmaster type. As shown, the zig-

zag stitches

54 and 55 of strand 31 are unchanged in this area, but the chain stitches, 51, 52, or 53 of the strands 30 have been converted to the jersey knit 2-0, 2-4 stitch shown at 56 and 57, so that the

strands

30 and 31 cross each garment are shown in stylized form, lighter lines, in

view of the difficulty of showing the actualloop structure accurately on small scale.

In FIG. 4, a stitch shaped, string connected, back-toback panty hose product of the invention is shown, enlarged over the showing in FIG. 1 and with thebasic stitch areas designated 40, and the reinforced stitch areas designated 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45 in a manner similar to FIG. 3.

The two guide bars of the 14. guide bars of the Fashionmaster which are not required may be used to insert filler yarns for design purposes, if desired.

A pattern chain layout by which the guide bars 1-12 are controllably operated by pattern chain means 25 and 26 to cause machine 20 to knit the sheer panty hose product of the invention is set out below. The layout is stated as it would beread from the design pages, and does not take into account that actual practice would require some chain links to be transposed to a higher, or lower, value due to pushing the guide bars from the left side or the right side. Since the left and right drums of the right and left pattern means 25 or 26 can be reversed, the drums are designated as one drum and other drum.

PATTERN CHAIN SET OUT (Read chains left to right) NOTE The upper set of numbers, left to right, represents the motions for each guide bar to make the tube.

The lower set of numbers, left to right, represents the motions for each guide bar to make the panty section when both drums are shifted.

, When the one drum is shifted only the heel and toe is formed.

FRONT FRONT BACK BACK Guide Bar 1 20 00 02 22 One Drum Shift, 20 00 24 22 Guide Bar 2 20 00 02 22 Other Drum Shift 20 00 24 22 Guide Bar 3 i 20 00 02 22 Other Drum Shift 20 20 22 22 Guide Bar 4 24 22 20 22 Other Drum Shift 24 22 20 22 A Guide Bar 5 02 02 00 00 Other Drum Shift 02 02 00 00 Guide Bar 6 02 02 00 i 00 Other Drum Shift 24 22 20 22 Guide Bar 7 22 22 20 20 Other Drum Shift 22 24 22 20 Guide Bar 8 22 22 20 20 Other Drum Shift 22 22 20 20 Guide Bar 9 22 22 22 20 Other Drum Shift 22 24 22 20 Guide Bar 10 02 22 20 00 Other Drum Shift 02 02 00 00 Guide Bar 11 02 22 20 00 Other Drum Shift 20 22 24 00 Guide Bar 12 02 22 20 00 One Drum Shift 20 22. 24 00 What is claimed is:

1. A method of warp knitting, hollow tubular undergarments of the sheer stocking, panty hose, type on a double needle bed Raschel knitting machine, said method comprising the steps of feeding two strands, each through a separate guide bar, to each needle of each zone of said double needle beds selected to form a continuous string of said tubular undergarments,

operating one said guide bar relative to each said needle to form wales of chain stitches all around said tube and simultaneously operating the other said guide bar relative to its said needle to lap back and, forth between adjacent needles to interconnect said chain stitched wales, thereby forming a basic stitch in the limb portions of said undergarments, and

controllably operating said one guide bar relative to each said needle in accordance with a predetermined pattern, to change from said chain stitch motion to a lapping motion back and forth between adjacent needles for interconnecting and reinforcing the loops being lapped by said other guide bar in heel, toe, welt and any other reinforced areas of said undergarments.

2. A method for warp knitting sheer, undergarment tubes on a double needle bed Raschel knitting machine which comprises the steps of:

feeding a first strand and a second strand to each needle of each tube, wales lapping the first strand of each said needle back and forth between said needle and the adjacent needle to interconnect the wales of the said garments from one end thereof to the other;

in body, or limb, portions of said garments, chain stitching the second strand of each said needle to form a run-proof lock stitch with the laps of said first strand, and

in heel, toe, welt or other predetermined reinforced areas of said garments converting the chain stitch motions of the second strand of each needle into lapping motions, in a direction opposite to the direction of the laps being formed by said first strand to reinforce said areas.

3. A method as specified in claim 2, wherein the lapping motion of said first strand is of a 2-0, 2-4

single needle over-lap shog construction and the over-lapping motion of said second strand, in said reinforcement areas is 2-4, 2-0 single needle overlap shog construction, whereby the limb portions of said undergarments are of sheer, lock, chain-stitch structure and the reinforced areas are of reduced mesh size, increased steps of:

feeding two fine denier strands to each needle of each needle bed of a transverse zone of said machine required to warp knit a panty width tube;

for each opposite pair of needles in said transverse zone, alternately, first operating two guide bars to form chain stitches of one strand on each said needle, and then operating said two guide bars to alternately form jersey stitches of said one strand by moving one needle space between needles; continuously operating two other guide bars to form zig-zag stitches by moving one needle space between adjacent needles to tie in the chain stitches and the jersey stitches being made by the first named two guide bars, said chain stitch-zigzag stitch areas constituting the body knit and said jersey-zig-zag stitch areas constituting the reinforced toe, heel and welt areas of said undergarment,

continuously operating four other guide bars to join the selvedge of the outer edges of the fabrics being formed on said needle beds, and

periodically operating two other guide bars to join the selvedge of the inner edges of the fabrics being so formed to form the crotch and limb tubes of said garment. 5. A method for producing sheer, run-proof, warp warp knitting the main body of said garments homogeneously in a basic knitted structure having walewise extending chains of one set of strands tied in by zig-zag stitches of another set of strands, and

reinforcing predetermined areas of said basic knitted structure by temporarily converting the chain stitches of said one set of strands to jersey stitches,

thereby forming heel, foot bottom, toe, or welt reinforced areas while underlapping or overlapping no more than one needle space in said structure.

Claims

1. A method of warp knitting, hollow tubular undergarments of the sheer stocking, panty hose, type on a double needle bed Raschel knitting machine, said method comprising the steps of feeding two strands, each through a separate guide bar, to each needle of each zone of said double needle beds selected to form a continuous string of said tubular undergarments, operating one said guide bar relative to each said needle to form wales of chain stitches all around said tube and simultaneously operating the other said guide bar relative to its said needle to lap back and forth between adjacent needles to interconnect said chain stitched wales, thereby forming a basic stitch in the limb portions of said undergarments, and controllably operating said one guide bar relative to each said needle in accordance with a predetermined pattern, to change from said chain stitch motion to a lapping motion back and forth between adjacent needles for interconnecting and reinforcing the loops being lapped by said other guide bar in heel, toe, welt and any other reinforced areas of said undergarments.

2. A method for warp knitting sheer, undergarment tubes on a double needle bed Raschel knitting machine which comprises the steps of: feeding a first strand and a second strand to each needle of each tube, lapping the first strand of each said needle back and forth between said needle and the adjacent needle to interconnect the wales of the said garments from one end thereof to the other; in body, or limb, portions of said garments, chain stitching the second strand of each said needle to form a run-proof lock stitch with the laps of said first strand, and in heel, toe, welt or other predetermined reinforced areas of said garments converting the chain stitch motions of the second strand of each needle into lapping motions, in a direction opposite to the direction of the laps being formed by said first strand to reinforce said areas.

3. A method as specified in claim 2, wherein the lapping motion of said first strand is of a 2-0, 2-4 single needle over-lap shog construction and the over-lapping motion of said second strand, in said reinforcement areas is 2-4, 2-0 single needle over-lap shog construction, whereby the limb portions of said undergarments are of sheer, lock, chain-stitch Structure and the reinforced areas are of reduced mesh size, increased density and opacity, jersey knit structure.

4. The method of warp knitting a sheer panty hose undergarment on a multiple guide bar, double needle bed Raschel knitting machine, which method comprises the steps of: feeding two fine denier strands to each needle of each needle bed of a transverse zone of said machine required to warp knit a panty width tube; for each opposite pair of needles in said transverse zone, alternately, first operating two guide bars to form chain stitches of one strand on each said needle, and then operating said two guide bars to alternately form jersey stitches of said one strand by moving one needle space between needles; continuously operating two other guide bars to form zig-zag stitches by moving one needle space between adjacent needles to tie in the chain stitches and the jersey stitches being made by the first named two guide bars, said chain stitch-zig-zag stitch areas constituting the body knit and said jersey-zig-zag stitch areas constituting the reinforced toe, heel and welt areas of said undergarment, continuously operating four other guide bars to join the selvedge of the outer edges of the fabrics being formed on said needle beds, and periodically operating two other guide bars to join the selvedge of the inner edges of the fabrics being so formed to form the crotch and limb tubes of said garment.

5. A method for producing sheer, run-proof, warp knitted, tubular, garments on a two needle bed warp knitting machine, which comprises the steps of: warp knitting the main body of said garments homogeneously in a basic knitted structure having walewise extending chains of one set of strands tied in by zig-zag stitches of another set of strands, and reinforcing predetermined areas of said basic knitted structure by temporarily converting the chain stitches of said one set of strands to jersey stitches, thereby forming heel, foot bottom, toe, or welt reinforced areas while underlapping or overlapping no more than one needle space in said structure.